Philip K. Dick never got to see Blade Runner, but thought highly of the preview that he saw before his death. The film by Ridley Scott was an adaptation of his short story Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
The absurdity in Alice in Wonderland is often attributed to drugs or a dark trip into the subconscious. For her PhD work, Melanie Bayley examined some of the most popular scenes from a mathematical perspective, which is summed up in Alice’s adventures in algebra. Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Caroll) was a rather conservative mathematician, who disagreed with many of the new mathematical theories emerging during the 19th century.
The madness of Wonderland, I believe, reflects Dodgson’s views on the dangers of this new symbolic algebra. Alice has moved from a rational world to a land where even numbers behave erratically.
I don’t imagine that Tim Burton’s new Alice in Wonderland will delve too deeply into mathematical theory.
I was watching My Man Godfrey and was struck by the title sequence and its use of typography. Older films generally have the credits first, this one is no different in that respect, but the integration into the film is quite phenomenal — the camera pans across a cityscape, with the cast, crew and title, displayed as blinking signage. The film is now in the public domain, and available for viewing on Google video or download from the Internet Archive.
On a somewhat related note, I thought the title sequence for Bored to Death was quite well done. Although, it’s more in the vein of typography as illustration.
Update: Added graphics from two title sequences. Also thought I’d take a moment to mention Christian’s Movie Title Stills again, which I linked to earlier.
Christian Annyas has created a collection of movie title stills from the films that he has watched over the years. It also serves as a good repository for typographic inspiration.
Michael Heilemann dug up an interview with George Lucas from 1971, shortly after Warner Brothers had finished butchering THX 1138. At this point, you can see that he’s pretty disillusioned with Hollywood, and how that pushed him towards the creation of Lucasfilm.
Where the Wild Things Are trailer. I’m definitely looking forward to this one.
The Godfather Wars, a recent Vanity Fair article, goes along way towards describing what was necessary to get the first Godfather movie off the ground. I can’t image what the film would’ve been like with some of the original studio demands.
The National Film Board of Canada has put their film archive online. The movies are all encoded in Flash and can be embedded, no direct downloads unfortunately.
Film Addict will tell you what percent of the top 250 movies on IMDb that you’ve seen. My score is a healthy 50.4%.
The trouble with Paul Feig, a NYT Magazine article on loserdom with one of Hollywood’s go-to geeks.
Not Coming to a Theatre Near You. Slick looking site featuring reviews of movies you likely haven’t seen.
I’ve been tagged for four things by Matt, it’s been awhile since one of these meme’s floated around. The site has more readership now and I’ve been slacking with the personal sections, so here goes.
Update: The movie is now playing in North American theatres under the title District B13. Go see it on the big screen. June 2, 2006
I don’t post that many movie reviews anymore, but sometimes the people need to know. Banlieue 13 (imdb) is a French flick, so it’s not something you’re likely to find in Blockbuster or your local cornerstore. You’ll probably need to send a letter to your local movie distributor asking them to shape up or buy an import.
The movie’s pacing is intense; if the first five or ten minutes doesn’t have your jaw settled nicely on the floor you can have your money back. Banlieue 13 is set in the near future, in a gang-controlled Paris suburb that has been walled off from the rest of the city. Leito needs to team up with a cop to save his kidnapped sister and rescue the inhabitants from a neutron bomb detonation. Good setup? Sure, why not.
A Scanner Darkly trailer is out
The new movie by Richard Linklater uses the same technique he used for Waking Life and is based on a novel by Philip K. Dick.
